With excitement among Rajinikanth’s fans at its peak, some major companies in Chennai and Bengaluru had already declared a holiday today and given their employees free tickets for the film.

The earliest show in the city started around 4 a.m.

For the first show in the city, hardcore superstar fans assembled outside cinema halls even before midnight to celebrate the release of the film.

“We spent the whole night outside. As early as 11 p.m., we gathered at the theater to raise banners and huge cutouts of Thalaivar,” Musab Ahamad, who watched the first show, told Janta Ka Reporter.”

Rajinikanth returns to the big screen after a gap of six years with ‘Kabali’. An ageing gangster who is released from prison after having served term for killing his aide, he is now a much-reformed man. Lonesome and pensive, he still has some unanswered questions bothering him, including the supposed death of his wife played poignantly by Radhika Apte.